1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for treatment of hay before dried on the spot, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus which increase a drying rate of mowed-down hay so as to enable rapid drying of hay on the spot, when vegetating hay in the field is mowed by a mower of mow-down type in the manner of mowing down the hay on the field or that of rake-up type in the manner of raking up the hay in windrow, and then allowed to stand as it is for drying on the spot.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When vegetating hay in the field is mowed by a mower and then prepared for the forage of domestic animals, it is necessary to dry the hay so as to reduce the moisture content of hay more than that of just mowed hay, in case of using the hay for not only dried hay but also silage.
Thus, for the purpose of increasing a drying rate of mowed hay, the mowed hay is mixed by stirring or whipped for rapid drying.
When the hay mowed down on the field by the mower is mixed by stirring or whipped for rapid drying, especially, when forage legume hay, there is a problem in that a pick-up device picks up the hay having been dried in a predetermined manner, leaving highly-nourishing leaves on the field, resulting in remarkable increase of a pick-up loss.
This is based on the fact that the forage legume has the properties of having hard stalks which are hardly dried and contain less nourishment, and soft leaves which are easily dried and contain much nourishment, so that when the forage legume is mixed by stirring or whipped as described above for rapid drying, highly-nourishing leaves are stripped from the stalks in the course of the above operation and then fall off to the ground, and as a result, the pick-up device generally used for a conventional hay harvesting machine could not pick up such highly-nourishing leaves.